From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

State of Wonder

Ann Patchett

Start date: February 15, 2012

Finish date: March 1, 2012

Discussion: Reading List

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What Members Thought

May 29, 2012 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Shelves: orange-prize, read2013, around-the-world, location-brazil

I waited to read this for quite some time, and now feel a little flummoxed as to why it ended up on so many award lists last year. Like Bel Canto, a novel I'd say I enjoyed more, Ann Patchett brings us an interesting premise that is not realistic enough to be halfway believable. This time it is in the jungles of Brazil, where one doctor has died, and his co-worker from the drug company, another pharmacologist named Marina, is sent back to the research site to find out what happened to him, and w I waited to read this for quite some time, and now feel a little flummoxed as to why it ended up on so many award lists last year. Like Bel Canto, a novel I'd say I enjoyed more, Ann Patchett brings us an interesting premise that is not realistic enough to be halfway believable. This time it is in the jungles of Brazil, where one doctor has died, and his co-worker from the drug company, another pharmacologist named Marina, is sent back to the research site to find out what happened to him, and what progress has been done on the research.

The story is more complicated because the woman currently running the research site is Marina's former ob/gyn residency supervising doctor. Both have abandoned ob/gyn work by the time this book takes place, Annick because of the compelling work in the jungle, and Marina because of an almost-fatal error she made in doing a caesarean. They are working with a people group who have bizarre bark-eating practices in the jungle with magical mushrooms... I'm not joking. Neither is the author. Then there is the deaf child who magically knows everything... She just could have made it even a little more plausible and it would have been a stronger novel.

Nothing surprised me in this book; I saw everything coming. I hate that. (view spoiler)

Still, Ann Patchett is a good writer, meaning I always enjoy the words on the page. I wish I could give the book one rating for story and one for writing. This is why I go back and forth between 3-4 stars. A few examples, which might not make sense outside of context:

"Hope is a horrible thing, you know. I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not. It's a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it."

This little bit is what reminded me so much of Bel Canto:
"The building itself was the performance, the two long marble staircases curving up in front, the high blue walls piped with crisp white embellishments, the great tiled dome that must have been torn from a Russian palace by a monstrous storm and blown all the way to South America, or so a tourist had told Marina... Marina thought of it as the line of civilization that held the jungle back. Surely without the opera house the vines would have crept up over the city and swallowed it whole." ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Ann Patchett is an author whose previous work has left me slackjawed in admiration. My love for Bel Canto is boundless, irrational, indefensible; that book just affected me in a way that very few books do. State of Wonder didn't move me in quite the same way, but I greatly enjoyed it and have no hesitation in recommending it.

I have an innate tendency when reviewing to take the good stuff for granted and give undue emphasis to minor faults. I want to try to avoid that here, so let me begin by poi Ann Patchett is an author whose previous work has left me slackjawed in admiration. My love for Bel Canto is boundless, irrational, indefensible; that book just affected me in a way that very few books do. State of Wonder didn't move me in quite the same way, but I greatly enjoyed it and have no hesitation in recommending it.

I have an innate tendency when reviewing to take the good stuff for granted and give undue emphasis to minor faults. I want to try to avoid that here, so let me begin by pointing out some of the things I like about Ann Patchett's writing in general, and this book in particular.

State of Wonder is 350 pages long. I read it in a 24-hour period. Not quite in a single session, but close. I mention this because I think it's germane -- if a book draws me in to the extent that I really don't want to stop reading, then the author has at least succeeded at the most fundamental level, she has told a story that's interesting enough to hold my attention. Sadly, this is something we can no longer take for granted -- many contemporary authors no longer seem to feel any serious obligation to tell a decent story that an intelligent reader might reasonably enjoy. (I’m apparently channeling my inner Franzen here). There are honorable exceptions, of course -- I used to look forward to each new book by Margaret Drabble (in mid-career), Anne Tyler, Iris Murdoch, because I knew that even in their less successful efforts they would still not neglect their responsibility to tell a good story. Other authors have been added to my “old reliable” list over the years, but not that many: Colm Toibin, David Lodge, Peter Carey. Jane Smiley rarely disappoints, Kate Atkinson writes these ludicrously entertaining, hugely complicated stories about her sad-sack characters and keeps you glued to your seat every time. “State of Wonder” clearly establishes Ann Patchett’s right to be on the list*.

The story is structured in an obvious parallel to Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, a flourish that would be a setup for failure in the hands of a less talented writer. Patchett makes it work beautifully; her ability to convey the rising sense of tension and foreboding experienced by the main protagonist, Marina, as she travels deeper upstream into the jungle is scarily brilliant. Along the way, there are some extraordinarily beautiful passages, my favorite being the description of Marina’s attendance at a performance of Orfeo et Eurydice at the opera house in Manaus (a tribute to Fitzcarraldo?). I really like the way Ann Patchett writes -- she has a kind of unobtrusive brilliance that makes it look effortless. “State of Wonder” covers a lot of ground, physically and emotionally, and there‘s a slightly feverish quality to the narrative, particularly in the later parts of the book; but Patchett is such a smart and engaging writer, I was hooked by the story, and didn’t want it to stop. So the occasional implausibilities in the plot and the sense that a few of the characters came straight from central casting, or were little more than mouthpieces, didn’t seem like fatal flaws.

“State of Wonder” is not a simple book -- the complicated emotional journey that Marina traverses as she completes her physical journey into the heart of the jungle forms the core of the book, but along the way Patchett raises interesting questions about the interplay between stewardship of the planet’s natural resources, scientific ambition, women’s reproductive freedom, and corporate responsibility. It’s an ambitious agenda; occasionally the mirroring of the global and personal issues feels a bit forced, and the key character of Dr Swenson was (for me) a bit over the top. But even if Patchett isn’t completely successful in tying everything together, “State of Wonder” is a terrific story, wonderfully told.

* I feel obliged to add a slight digression to talk about gender imbalance. Women are far better represented on my personal list of go-to authors, and I’ve often wondered why this should be. I think it’s that most contemporary male authors seem too susceptible to lapsing into a kind of solipsistic obsession about their dicks (Updike, Roth), or their own cleverness (Amis, Barnes, McEwan), or both, and they often end up reneging on that obligation to the reader, to tell a decent story.
Then, of course, there are the myriad “authors” who would like to deny that any such obligation exists in the first place. Useless gits.
...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

This is the best book I've read in a long time. I wasn't sure I'd like it from the plot descriptions I'd read, but Patchett's writing was beautiful. I didn't even mind the strings she left hanging at the end. ...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Yashoda Sampath rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed the novel, but I had a big problem with Marina's character. She was kind of a blank slate at best.

My thoughts are here: http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2... ...more

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Jan 09, 2014 Ardita rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This book has left me in a state of wonder indeed. I'm not sure I understand where the writer is going. The only credit goes to Dr. Marina Singh, who was kept wondering until the last page. ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I liked this book, but as the ending came, I grew increasingly frustrated. It is really well written and I enjoyed it as much as I loved Bel Canto and Run - until the end. Seriously, I can't give it away without spoilers, so I won't. ...more

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